


In All the Worlds

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Supernatural
Genre: Chance Meetings, Crossover, Flirting, Gen, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 15:36:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14718845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: After being ditched on a night out, Poe meets an unusual stranger at the bar.





	In All the Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Into a Bar challenge; my prompt was for Poe to walk into a bar and meet Castiel. Lots of thanks to RL friend for beta!

“Fuck you, Kun,” Poe said to his datapad even as he tapped it out in a message to send to her. If she was gonna bail on him she could have at least done it before he hauled his ass to this not exactly reputable cantina. Mirrin Prime’s nightlife was slim pickings. It wasn’t like it mattered most of the time; he was too busy to spend much time off-base. He had honestly been looking forward to getting a drink tonight though.

His datapad buzzed with a sarcastic reply which Poe didn’t deign to respond to. Well, he was here now, and he was damn well going to have a drink, with or without company.

The sound of music from the band onstage was only barely louder than the buzz of conversation, which was almost a kindness. Poe slid onto an empty stool at the bar to order an ale, right next to a man in a trenchcoat with a full glass in front of him, appearing to be on his own. Maybe his friends had ditched him, too.

Poe didn't recognize him, either from base or the local civilians. Dark hair, bright blue eyes, kind of scruffy, probably older than Poe. Hot, to be honest, though he looked oddly out of place in a way Poe couldn’t exactly put a finger on.

Well, Poe preferred drinking with company so he figured he’d take his chances. “Not to your liking?” he asked, gesturing at the man’s drink.

“Oh, I don’t drink. At least, not usually.” The man’s voice was almost startlingly gruff, lower than Poe had anticipated.

“Then why the drink?”

“It was my understanding that it is considered poor manners to sit in an establishment without ordering.”

“Yeah, kind of. So are you meeting someone or…”

“I don’t know anyone in this galaxy.”

Frowning, Poe said, “You mean you don’t know anyone on this planet?”

“No, in this galaxy.”

“What? Sorry, but you’ve lost me.” Poe was trying to come up with an explanation for how a person could know absolutely no one in the entire galaxy, but each reason he came up with seemed more ridiculous than the last.

“I mostly reside in another galaxy.”

Poe opened his mouth and closed it again. Kriffing hell. “Wait, you have a ship that can cross galaxies? Because I would do a hell of a lot to fly that.” He wondered if the lust he was feeling was too obvious. He had never even heard of such a thing before and his brain was shouting questions at him. 

Imagine the look on his friends’ faces if he could tell them he’d flown to another kriffing galaxy.

“You can’t fly it.”

“Buddy, I can fly anything.”

“You misunderstand me. I don’t have a ship. I am an angel; I flew here.”

“You’re an angel and you flew here,” Poe repeated. “Somehow not the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You’re remarkably open-minded for a human.”

“I’ve been called worse things.” Poe held his hand out. “Poe.”

“Castiel.” The angel stared at Poe’s hand for a second as if considering what to do with it, his head tilting. Then, as if something sparked in his mind, he shook Poe’s hand with a firm grip.

“I’d offer to buy you a drink while I ask you the million questions I have, but I’m guessing you’d turn me down.”

“Yes, but I will answer your questions anyway. Unless doing so would be inadvisable,” Castiel amended. “Some answers might not be mine to give.”

“Good enough for me.” Poe leaned in a little towards Castiel. “So. You flew here.”

“That’s what I said, I believe.”

It was probably amazingly rude but Poe peered around to Castiel’s back. “It’s just… Where are your wings?” He just stopped himself from reaching out to touch.

“This is not my true form; it’s merely a vessel. My true form would...” Castiel hesitated. “It would not be a pleasant experience for you to view it.”

“What, like my eyes would burn out of my skull or something?” At Castiel’s expression, Poe realized he was actually probably pretty close to the mark. “Oh. Well, then.” Poe took a swallow of his drink. “So there’s really no way I can see your wings? No way you could show me? Also I didn’t really mean for that to sound like a come-on, but here we are.”

Castiel considered. “Perhaps the shadow of them, though it would draw attention.”

“Look, Castiel, this place is a dive. Half the clientele is doing something they shouldn’t or thinking about it. No one’s going to look twice in here if someone suddenly has wings.”

“There is certainly greater… variety here than on the planet I’ve come from.”

“Really?” Poe said, intrigued. “All humans there?” Kind of boring, really, when he thought about it.

“They have yet to master interplanetary space travel on this scale,” Castiel explained. “Many humans think they are all there is, that there is no life beyond Earth.”

Poe took a second to think about what that meant. Everyone stuck on the planet where they were born, not knowing there was anything else out there, never being able to see the stars. He knew there were beings too poor or too unfortunate to do more than dream of escaping their lives, but it was different, somehow, than… than  _ not knowing.  _ Like your planet was all there was.

It sounded horrible.

But Castiel was continuing, “There are the demons, of course, but they also possess human vessels, and the monsters, but many of them can pass for human as well, and many humans will never encounter them regardless.”

“Demons and monsters,” Poe repeated. No space travel, but that was certainly something. “Buddy, I feel like you’ve got some stories to tell.” 

Castiel looked wry. “That’s true.”

“But for now, wings?”

“Oh. Of course.”  

Castiel concentrated for a moment and seemed almost to grow larger, though Poe thought it might just have been a trick of the light. Or maybe the guy simply stopped hunching for a second there. Behind him appeared the shadow of wings, stretching large to either side, and then it faded.

Poe grinned. “Damn! Consider me impressed. That’s some wingspan.”

“I’ve never considered myself a terribly impressive angel, honestly.”

“Well, you look like one to me,” Poe said, clapping him on the shoulder, liking the tiny, startled upward curve of Castiel’s mouth. “What I wouldn’t give for an actual set of wings.”

“You enjoy flying?”

“Enjoy it? I’d never do anything else, if I could.”

“You can fly anything,” Castiel said, echoing Poe’s earlier words.

“Anything with an engine,” Poe amended. Actual kriffing wings, to soar on the wind like a bird. He absolutely, positively wasn’t jealous.

Aw, who was he kidding?

“I broke my arm once when I was a kid,” Poe said. “Fell out of a tree and didn’t fly. Wings would’ve been nice.”

“I fell, too,” Castiel said, his tone seeming somehow more somber. “I missed my wings when they were gone.”

“You fell?” Poe had the idea Castiel didn’t mean it in the physical sense.

“Cast down to the earth and made human,” Castiel explained.

“That sounds rough.”

“It was an… adjustment. Though not all bad. Angels don’t feel things the way humans do. Sensation and emotion and  _ life.  _ Your bodies are fragile and your lives difficult, but there are things I envy you, now that I know how it feels.”

“The drink.”

Castiel nodded. “I developed a taste for certain human foods but it isn’t the same.”

Poe squared himself more fully on the stool, facing Castiel. “And when you say sensation…”

“I just mean that being human made everything feel more… vibrant. Like truly being alive. Angels have no need for physicality and we lack your emotional responses.” Castiel paused. “Though I believe my close involvement with humans has changed me somewhat in that respect.”

“So angels are supposed to be more…”

“A friend of mine would say ‘robotic’, if that’s a reference that makes sense to you.”

“I think I get it,” Poe said, smiling. “You don’t seem all that robotic to me.” Not that most of the robots Poe knew even fit the connotation Castiel was implying. BB-8 would sure as hell be offended.

“Thank you.”

Poe found himself leaning in again. Castiel’s eyes were really very blue. “I’m guessing that all this means sex is off the menu?”

“Regrettably, I believe so. I found it rather pleasurable.”

“Sort of the point.” Damn, this guy was cute. “Well, if you ever want to test it out, see if it can still be rather pleasurable, I wouldn’t say no.”

“I appreciate the offer but that would be inappropriate.”

“Why? I’m willing if you are.”

“Angels aren’t meant to copulate with humans in any galaxy. The results of such unions are considered abominations.”

_ Abominations.  _ And with a straight face, too. “Well, buddy, I don’t know how your hardware works but mine needs something a bit different for abomination-making. We’d have to get scientific about it for it to be an issue.”

“Still. I’m afraid I must regretfully decline. You are… very attractive for a human,” Castiel said, like he wanted to be reassuring.

Poe smiled and touched his wrist. This was by far the politest let-down Poe had ever had. “I appreciate that. And hey, the offer stays open if you change your mind.”

“That’s kind of you.”

Unable to stop his laugh, Poe said, “It’s not exactly altruism. You’re cute and I don’t get out much.”

Castiel’s gaze flickered down and then back up to Poe’s face. “You are a pilot? In the military.”

“You’re either a great guesser or I’m even more obvious than I thought.”

“You did say you love flying, and I’m aware there is a military base near here.”

“So, kind of both. There isn’t much on this planet besides the base, honestly. If you wanted to sightsee, you could’ve picked a better spot.”

“I may have planned poorly,” Castiel agreed. 

“But hey. You met me, so not a total loss, right?”

“I’d say not.”

Poe bit his lip, trying to clamp down on his grin, and thought that it was really too bad Castiel wasn’t up for trying anything. Poe wouldn’t mind getting to know him better, and maybe a lot better. “So. Angels and demons and monsters? That sounds a hell of a lot more interesting than the boring ass patrols I’ve been stuck doing lately.”

Castiel inclined his head. “We have saved the world… many times.”

“I’m getting the impression that’s not just a figure of speech.”

“No. My friends and I have prevented the literal apocalypse.”

That wasn’t a term Poe was familiar with but it sounded impressive, anyway. “Your friends are angels, too?”

“Humans. The Winchesters.” Castiel said the name with both fondness and great importance, as though these friends were special in more ways than one. “Though we often have aid from others.”

“Makes sense you might need some help to save the world.”

“It’s mostly the Winchesters though.” Castiel clearly took significant pride in that. Poe kind of wanted to meet them.

“My parents helped overthrow an evil Empire that was ruling the galaxy,” Poe said, and Castiel patted his hand like it was a gesture he had seen someone make before. It was weirdly charming, much like Castiel himself.

“I’m sure they were very brave.”

“I owe everything to them,” Poe said, and finished his drink. “Well, Castiel, it’s honestly been a pleasure but I should probably head back. I’ve got an early meeting in the morning.”

“It has been my pleasure as well,” Castiel said with a sincere seriousness that Poe didn’t see often. “Thank you for keeping me company.”

“I generally always prefer company, and you saved me from drinking alone at the bar, which never looks good.” Poe stood, sliding his hands into his pockets. “But, uh, hey. Can I ask you for a favor, maybe?”

“Of course.”

“The whole flying thing. Does it work with a passenger?”

Castiel smiled slowly. “It does.”

Poe tipped his head towards the door. “So…”

Castiel reached out, stopping just sort of touching Poe’s shoulder. “To your base?”

“Hell, yeah.”

Then Castiel touched, a firm grip of Poe’s shoulder. There was a soft fluttering sound, as of wings, and the bar disappeared. It felt like only a moment and then Poe’s feet were on the ground, his balance off.

He blinked around himself, seeing the familiar military base just steps away, and would have toppled over if not for Castiel still holding him. He exhaled. “Whoa. That’s it?”

“Was it not what you expected?”

“I mean, I was in the bar, and then I was here. We flew?” They hadn’t even been outside.

Understanding dawned on Castiel’s face. “Of course, for you it would feel that way. Your mind doesn’t process it the way I do. I didn’t take that into account. The Winchesters have never been particularly interested in flying so it’s never been a concern.”

“Just means next time, you’ll have to let me take the scenic route, right? Let me really enjoy it?”

“Next time, of course,” Castiel agreed, fondness in his tone.

Poe stepped back, steadier on his feet now, though he touched Castiel’s elbow. “When you come back, I can show you around. If you want? This wasn’t a good intro to my galaxy.”

“I’d like that.” Castiel gave Poe a small nod.

“I’m really glad I met you, Castiel,” Poe said, and raised his hand in a wave as he started back to his quarters on base. He honestly hoped this wouldn’t be the last time he ever saw Castiel, but if it had to be, he was still happy to have found him at that bar.

“Poe,” Castiel said, and Poe turned back.

“Yeah?”

“I apologize for the intrusion, but when we flew, I… I’m sorry about your mother. She loved you very much.”

Poe swallowed and nodded. “Thanks.” He lingered a bit longer, until Castiel straightened, the appearance of shadowy wings growing behind him, and then he was gone.

“You’re gonna be sorry you skipped out on me, Karé,” Poe said to himself, and wondered if she would ever believe him.


End file.
